Pothole-spotter app aims to stop arse ache

Names and shames councils along the way

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A simple way to report potholes which need repairing means you can now see how well, or badly, your local council is doing keeping the roads safe.

FillThatHole.org.uk has been running for a few years and allows cyclists, or anyone else, to report potholes. The site sends your message on to the relevant local authority which then has a statutory duty to fix the problem.

You can also make reports via an iPhone app which uses GPS and the phone's camera to send reports.

A spokesman for the CTC - the UK's National Cyclists Organisation - said: "We got sponsorship from Aggregate Industries which paid for the iPhone application. We know it would be better to have apps for all the different mobile phone platforms but we decided to focus our resources on getting one app right.

"If anyone could help develop applications for other platforms that would be fantastic."

The site has also crunched the numbers to produce a league table of best and worst performing local authorities.

Brent comes out on top - it has fixed 120 holes reported to it, a 100 per cent pass rate. At the bottom of the list, somewhat unfairly maybe, is Shetland, which has failed to fix any of the three holes it has been told about. If there are really only three potholes on Shetland, perhaps the island has decided resources are better spent elsewhere.

There are wide differences between areas - presumably according to how many people are aware of the app and the website. Glasgow has been told about 1,167 potholes and has fixed 167 of them.

Westminster has received 338 pothole reports and fixed 78 of them.

Surrey has received 2,818 reports, and fixed 666 of them.

FillThatHole is going to award prizes to the council with the highest percentage of potholes repaired and a prize to "the people's choice" - the council which most effectively responds to requests.